More and more people would prefer to live in the cities and towns that surround Hayward to avoid all the hustle and bustle.
So the question arises: what suburbs of Hayward are the worst?
Today, we’ll use Saturday Night Science to determine which Hayward ‘burbs need a little tender loving care – the sore thumbs of the Hayward area if you will. Realistically, you can only expect some of the suburbs to live up to Hayward proper, although Piedmont certainly tries.
We examined the 63 biggest suburbs of Hayward to find out the worst places to live. And while you won’t necessarily find them on the worst places to live in California lists, these places are a little too far downwind of Hayward in terms of quality of life.
$95,391 median income · $606,427 median home price
Located in
Contra Costa County, California
We’ll get the ball rolling with Richmond, the absolute worst place to live around Hayward according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Richmond beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 2nd worst in the Hayward area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 5th worst when it comes to home values.
But hey, at least it’s cheap to live there. But there’s a reason for that… it’s Richmond.
You won’t feel bad about not having a great income for the area. There aren’t a bunch of places to spend your money anyway.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$99,861 median income · $569,428 median home price
Located in
Contra Costa County, California
Welcome to Pittsburg. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 29.2 miles to Hayward. Income levels here are the 4th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $99,861 a year, which only goes so far even on a shoestring budget.
But on the bright side, there are a lot of fast food joints in the area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$97,465 median income · $598,211 median home price
Located in
Contra Costa County, California
Back up the highway we go for the third worst Hayward suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Antioch on here. While the cost of living is low, your entertainment and work options are limited. And that’s an understatement.
In terms of numbers, it’s in the worst 15% for insurance, and the adult high school dropout rate is poor compared to other Hayward suburbs.
But at least there are lovely parks to bring the kids during the day.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$79,478 median income · $569,732 median home price
Located in
Contra Costa County, California
If you live in San Pablo, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the lowest Hayward suburb for median household incomes.
Not only that, but this is the 3rd worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Hayward. Remember, we looked at 63 cities for this study.
San Pablo is about 26.5 miles to downtown.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$101,600 median income · $716,248 median home price
Located in
Alameda County, California
Oakland has the distinction of being a Hayward suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Oakland has the 6th lowest home values in the metro Hayward area, where the median price is $716,248. The median income is $250,001.
Oakland has an unemployment rate of 6.4% which ranks 15th worst.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers | Compare
$108,709 median income · $742,769 median home price
Located in
Contra Costa County, California
Concord has 124,035 residents that probably know it’s a pretty crummy place to live when you look at the data. (Or, if you’ve ever been there, you don’t need to look at the data.)
Incomes are towards the bottom, and the poverty rate sits at 8.2%.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$101,420 median income · $817,480 median home price
Located in
Alameda County, California
Ah, San Leandro. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Hayward.
It’s the place with the 26th most out of work residents in the Hayward metro area (5.3%).
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$113,493 median income · $1,034,441 median home price
Located in
San Mateo County, California
East Palo Alto is a city about 11.2 miles from Hayward, but Hayward probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a worse place to live. East Palo Alto has the 2nd most uninsured people, 9th worst incomes, and has the 29th highest unemployment rate (5.1%) in the entire Hayward metro area.
Homes only cost $1,034,441 for a reason. That’s cheap for Hayward standards.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$127,717 median income · $731,006 median home price
Located in
Contra Costa County, California
If you absolutely have to live near Hayward, then Pinole might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst Hayward suburb.
About 4.2% of residents are out of work.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$117,092 median income · $448,554 median home price
Located in
Alameda County, California
Rounding out the ten worst Hayward suburbs to call home is Emeryville.
Located 18.0 miles outside the city, Emeryville is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 13th highest unemployment rate (6.4%), and poverty is far above the area average.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is California’s statewide median.
California statewide median: $99,122
California statewide median: $774,582
California statewide median: 6.6%
California statewide median: 12.0%
On the map
Where the worst Hayward suburbs are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Hayward for 2026
To figure out how bad a Hayward suburb is to live in, we used Saturday Night Science to identify the kinds of things people like and then decide what suburbs have the least amount of those things.
Using the most recent American Community Survey data from 2020-2024, this is the criteria we used:
- High unemployment rate
- Low median household incomes
- Low population density (no things to do)
- Low home values
- A lot of high school dropouts
- High poverty
- High rate of uninsured families
We defined a suburb as any town within 30 miles of Hayward.
We also limited the analysis to places with over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 63 suburbs to evaluate around Hayward.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 63 in each category, where 1 was the worst.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality-of-life index.
And finally, we crowned the city with the worst quality of life index, the “Worst Suburb near Hayward.” We’re looking at you, Richmond.
We updated this article for 2026, which reflects our eleventh time ranking the worst suburbs around Hayward.
The full plate
Detailed List Of The Worst Hayward Suburbs
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Worst Score | Population | Median Income | Median Home Values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond | 6.71 | 115,505 | $95,391 | $606,427 |
| 2 | Pittsburg | 8.29 | 76,257 | $99,861 | $569,428 |
| 3 | Antioch | 9.00 | 116,477 | $97,465 | $598,211 |
| 4 | San Pablo | 10.86 | 31,720 | $79,478 | $569,732 |
| 5 | Oakland | 14.71 | 439,418 | $101,600 | $716,248 |
| 6 | Concord | 15.14 | 124,035 | $108,709 | $742,769 |
| 7 | San Leandro | 16.57 | 87,826 | $101,420 | $817,480 |
| 8 | East Palo Alto | 18.14 | 29,069 | $113,493 | $1,034,441 |
| 9 | Pinole | 18.64 | 18,761 | $127,717 | $731,006 |
| 10 | Emeryville | 19.93 | 13,081 | $117,092 | $448,554 |
| 11 | Brentwood | 20.57 | 65,208 | $142,494 | $805,888 |
| 12 | Brisbane | 21.36 | 4,692 | $156,169 | $1,159,533 |
| 13 | Hercules | 22.21 | 26,302 | $129,397 | $754,023 |
| 14 | San Jose | 22.29 | 990,138 | $146,427 | $1,463,614 |
| 15 | Martinez | 23.21 | 36,903 | $127,355 | $773,745 |
| 16 | El Cerrito | 24.29 | 25,994 | $127,876 | $1,142,479 |
| 17 | Pleasant Hill | 25.29 | 34,235 | $145,029 | $1,000,859 |
| 18 | Walnut Creek | 25.50 | 70,088 | $130,432 | $1,045,017 |
| 19 | San Bruno | 27.00 | 42,307 | $141,272 | $1,327,402 |
| 20 | Berkeley | 27.14 | 120,257 | $108,092 | $1,443,684 |
| 21 | Alameda | 27.71 | 77,238 | $137,697 | $1,155,484 |
| 22 | Newark | 28.14 | 46,903 | $169,064 | $1,260,998 |
| 23 | Half Moon Bay | 28.29 | 11,391 | $157,884 | $1,573,307 |
| 24 | Santa Clara | 28.50 | 130,256 | $178,958 | $1,782,192 |
| 25 | San Mateo | 29.00 | 103,105 | $153,504 | $1,686,905 |
| 26 | South San Francisco | 29.14 | 64,305 | $136,578 | $1,242,214 |
| 27 | Fremont | 30.71 | 228,295 | $181,506 | $1,543,132 |
| 28 | Milpitas | 31.00 | 78,578 | $178,798 | $1,502,891 |
| 29 | Millbrae | 31.07 | 22,689 | $163,476 | $2,082,465 |
| 30 | Burlingame | 31.29 | 30,525 | $174,000 | $2,761,630 |
| 31 | Pacifica | 31.71 | 37,261 | $160,523 | $1,284,847 |
| 32 | Clayton | 32.00 | 10,937 | $175,707 | $1,057,924 |
| 33 | Campbell | 32.29 | 42,781 | $145,268 | $1,977,422 |
| 34 | Livermore | 32.43 | 85,522 | $160,775 | $1,122,823 |
| 35 | Moraga | 32.50 | 16,769 | $216,193 | $1,666,830 |
| 36 | Belmont | 32.64 | 27,337 | $205,297 | $2,332,686 |
| 37 | Sausalito | 33.14 | 7,141 | $182,357 | $1,505,307 |
| 38 | Menlo Park | 33.93 | 32,727 | $210,025 | $2,865,159 |
| 39 | Pleasanton | 34.36 | 76,960 | $190,124 | $1,601,646 |
| 40 | Albany | 36.21 | 19,414 | $144,107 | $1,261,177 |
| 41 | Sunnyvale | 37.29 | 154,236 | $186,170 | $2,168,909 |
| 42 | San Ramon | 38.36 | 85,993 | $196,161 | $1,543,534 |
| 43 | Dublin | 38.79 | 70,803 | $214,385 | $1,305,295 |
| 44 | Mountain View | 38.93 | 83,732 | $189,917 | $2,037,086 |
| 45 | Mountain View | 38.93 | 83,732 | $189,917 | $2,037,086 |
| 46 | Palo Alto | 39.29 | 67,237 | $231,101 | $3,722,200 |
| 47 | Tiburon | 39.50 | 9,012 | $232,969 | $3,020,895 |
| 48 | Danville | 39.93 | 43,401 | $232,216 | $1,908,521 |
| 49 | Monte Sereno | 41.71 | 3,461 | $250,001 | $2,108,567 |
| 50 | Los Gatos | 42.07 | 32,786 | $217,554 | $2,705,289 |
| 51 | Hillsborough | 42.36 | 11,099 | $250,001 | $5,279,135 |
| 52 | Lafayette | 43.64 | 25,285 | $228,250 | $1,934,581 |
| 53 | Portola Valley | 44.43 | 4,305 | $250,001 | $4,275,093 |
| 54 | Los Altos Hills | 45.14 | 8,377 | $250,001 | $6,102,345 |
| 55 | Atherton | 46.36 | 6,993 | $250,001 | $7,890,841 |
| 56 | San Carlos | 46.79 | 29,614 | $237,470 | $2,459,877 |
| 57 | Orinda | 47.07 | 19,514 | $250,001 | $1,985,117 |
| 58 | Woodside | 47.57 | 5,126 | $250,001 | $3,891,384 |
| 59 | Cupertino | 48.50 | 58,566 | $234,707 | $3,189,452 |
| 60 | Saratoga | 48.93 | 30,319 | $250,001 | $4,189,623 |
| 61 | Los Altos | 49.00 | 30,698 | $250,001 | $4,713,315 |
| 62 | Belvedere | 52.71 | 2,345 | $250,001 | $4,692,541 |
| 63 | Piedmont | 55.79 | 10,945 | $250,001 | $2,459,056 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 63 suburbs within 30 miles of Hayward.
Summary
Summary: The areas around Hayward where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2026
Well there you have it — the worst of the ‘burbs surrounding Hayward with Richmond casting itself ahead of the pack.
The worst suburbs of Hayward are Richmond, Pittsburg, Antioch, San Pablo, Oakland, Concord, San Leandro, East Palo Alto, Pinole, and Emeryville.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Hayward aren’t all bad. Piedmont takes the cake as the best place to live around Hayward. Not sold on California? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Worst Suburbs Of Hayward FAQs
What is the worst suburb of Hayward?
Richmond ranks as the worst suburb around Hayward for 2026, according to Saturday Night Science. Pittsburg and Antioch are next on the list.
What are the worst suburbs of Hayward?
The worst-ranked suburbs around Hayward are Richmond, Pittsburg, Antioch, San Pablo, Oakland, Concord, San Leandro, East Palo Alto, Pinole, and Emeryville. We scored all 63 places within 30 miles.
Why does Richmond rank as the worst suburb?
Richmond posts the roughest combined numbers of the 63 suburbs we scored: a median household income of $95,391, a median home value of $606,427, and a poverty rate of 13.5%.
What is the best-ranked suburb near Hayward?
Piedmont lands at the opposite end of this ranking, making it the best-ranked suburb near Hayward by these measures. Our separate best suburbs of Hayward list covers that side properly.
How do you rank the worst suburbs?
Suburbs are scored on unemployment, income, density, home values, dropouts, poverty, and insurance coverage, using Census American Community Survey data. Real numbers, light heart — every one of these towns has people making it work.
